13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's a keeper, but ...get out your magnifying glass!, January 26, 2006
This review is from: Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook (Hardcover)
This book has received quite a bit of high praise (NY Times gave it a glowing review) and it's easy to understand why: the book itself is beautiful and the recipes are fresh, really delicious and not too complicated. It is readily apparent that Ms Spungen was once an employee of Martha Stewart, as aside from Martha penning the book's forward, you can see the "MS Esthetic" throughout the book. This unfortunately includes a typeface that is really too small and it makes the book a tough read. I assume that I'm like most people in that I read a recipe carefully (OK, sort of carefully) before cooking and then refer back to it a dozen times on the fly while in the kitchen. (And no, I'm not yet of an age where I need reading glasses!) But having to stop and fumble around until I can read detracts from all the book has to offer. That said, this is one of those cookbooks that makes a terrific wedding shower gift or housewarming gift to someone in their first apartment: the recipes will become workhorses in anyone's repertoire, but while you're at it buy them a magnifying glass too.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Essays on Familiar Recipes, Beautifully Packaged, February 7, 2006
This review is from: Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook (Hardcover)
`RECIPES, a collection for the modern cook' by former `Martha Stewart Living' Editorial Director for food and entertaining, Susan Spungen is the answer to my question over what Miss Susan was doing with herself since her name disappeared from the `Martha Stewart Living' masthead. Miss Spungen was one of the very few `Martha Stewart' staffers who commonly appeared on `In Martha's Kitchen' when it ran on the Food Network before Ms. Martha went into the slammer. Since Ms. Spungen was obviously had talent in converting information about food into good magazine features, I expected her name to pop up somewheres. Well, here it is, as the author of a book with either the most unoriginal or the most clever of titles for a cookbook since Apicius.
Spungen was the very first person to hold the food / entertaining lead at `Martha Stewart Living', so it is reasonable to believe she had a lot to do in creating the style of the magazine article and book writing and design, especially as Ms. Spungen's first vocation was that of an artist and visual design student who was lured into the culinary world by part time jobs, leading to a pastry chef under Mark Strassman at Pino Luongo's `Coco Pazzo'.
Whenever I open a general `celebrity chef / author' cookbook with no more than about 120 recipes, I really expect something unique in order for me to distinguish it from the 100 or more other books I have reviewed with roughly the same description. What is it about these 120 recipes which make them better than all those other books' versions of many of the same dishes.
The tidbit I find here which sets it apart from many other books is the fact that many of the things I really respect about `Martha Stewart Living' cookbooks really come from Spungen's approach to culinary writing. Spungen says she likes to leave nothing to the imagination when it comes to describing a culinary technique in words and pictures. And, this approach is certainly one of the strongest aspects of the latest `Martha Stewart Handbook of Baking'. Every last little detail is conveyed in both words and pictures. But, does this little insight deserve laying out cash for this book?
Spungen's organizing concept for her `RECIPES' is much more than this simple title would let on. Her chapters are all organized around seven of the most basic kitchen techniques, which are `Prepare', `Chop', `Saute', `Grill', `Roast', `Bake' and `Simmer & Braise' plus a dessert chapter, `Indulge'. After this great notion, I think Ms. Spungen seems to loose her way a bit in saying these are recipes for the `modern cook'. For the `modern' cook, I would expect a heavy emphasis on either high nutrition and low weight gaining potential or quick recipes. But then, following one of these two strategies would lead her into competition with people who do this for a living. So, the modern concept is a rather weakly conceived `new comfort food' notion.
Looking at the recipes, one really gets the sense of Spungen's revisiting a lot of traditional and familiar recipes all done with a little twist, much the same way that a new artist may approach the `Lord of the Rings' characters in a new way on the yearly calendar inspired by Tolkien characters, which has been done regularly by many different artists over the last 40 or so years. We have, for example, a new take on string beans and tomatoes, which is a familiar recipe written up by Paula Wolfert, and which has been done over by everyone from Mark Bittman to Rachael Ray to Susan Spungen, and everyone in between. We also have a new version of the even more familiar Caprese salad of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, with the twist of making it with grilled tomatoes and warmed cheese.
Even the desserts all seem to have a familiar look about them. Peach Melba, cheesecake with lemon curd, and a rhubarb and strawberry crumble can be found in dozens of different books. In general, Ms. Spungen is not even overly fussy with her techniques. One great watershed in technique is whether or not you go for springform pans when you make cheesecake. My favorite culinary nerd, Alton Brown, and several very serious culinary writers warn against the springform pans, but many others use them with no excuses. Ms. Spungen uses the springform pan, but follows almost all the other cautions regarding cheesecake making, such as using a water bath and letting it rest in the fridge for several hours before attacking it with a knife.
While I found virtually all of Ms. Spungen's expositions on basics sound and fairly informative, they were mostly essays in the already known. The recipe for vinaigrette, for example, I think was done much better in a `Martha Stewart Living' Vinaigrettes 101 article, probably written by Ms. Spungen herself.
I rather like Susan's introduction on kitchen tools. There is nothing dramatic here, simply a fair amount of good advice on a nice, albeit not complete set of basics and gadgets. One of the book's strongest points is the fact that it is laid out very nicely.
This is the kind of book which is good for either people with very few cookbooks who need some good recipes by someone who explains things well, or people like me who happen to collect cookbooks and relish that one new idea or recipe which makes the whole book worthwhile.
This is a very good book. It has many nice twists, but they are mostly twists on familiar themes. I have already made several dishes from this book but I am most looking forward to the Provencal Layered Omelet on page 62!
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